Pet food manufacturers continually try to improve dry pet foods to make them more nutritious and taste better. Dry pet foods are typically extruded using heat and pressure to make nutritionally balanced, low moisture pellets (kibbles) that are shelf-stable. Unfortunately, these dry kibbles can often be bland-tasting to the animal, so manufacturers usually coat the kibbles with a fat or a palatant to improve the flavor. However, it has now been found that if some of the ingredients normally added to the extruder are instead saved for after extrusion and coated on the outside, the kibble can have improved flavor without adding as much extra fat or palatants. This coating on the outside after extrusion not only saves costs but also results in less nutrition degradation since these ingredients do not go through the extruder and thus do not experience the heat and pressure thereof. Thus, the product is less expensive, better tasting, and higher in nutrition. For example vitamins, Probiotics, or other temperature sensitive nutritional ingredients can be added to the surface of the kibble post-extrusion resulting in a higher level of active material on the kibble due to the less thermal degradation. It has also been found that when nutrients such as amino acids and animal proteins are added to the outside of the kibble, the kibbles taste better to the animals, and nutrients are often more digestible. Accordingly, aspects of these benefits of post-extrusion processing are disclosed herein.